Project Summary Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) is a facultative gram-positive intracellular bacterium that causes infection in humans via ingestion of contaminated food. Severe infection can occur in elderly and immunocompromised patients well as in pregnant women and neonates. Infection can lead to meningitis, meningoencephalitis, brain abscess, and, for pregnant women, abortion, still-birth, and disseminated fetal infection. The high mortality rate of invasive Lm disease despite antibiotic treatment highlights the need for new effective therapeutic strategies for managing Lm infections. Previous studies have shown that distinct isolates of Lm can exhibit different tissue tropisms, resulting in the acquisition of novel target organ replication niches. A clinical Lm isolate, 07PF0776, was found to have an enhanced ability to target cardiac tissue based on amino acid variations present within InlB, a bacterial surface protein associated with host cell invasion. These amino acid variations appear to increase stability and promote binding to host surface heparin sulfate moieties, which results in recruitment of InlB to the host cell surface and stimulation of Met, the receptor bound by InlB. The Met receptor is abundantly expressed by placental tissue and is required for embryonic and placental development. Preliminary data has shown at least two Lm cardiotropic strains expressing the InlB variant exhibit significantly enhanced vertical transmission. We hypothesize that modification of InlB can expand the tissue repertoire of Lm and enhance invasion through the manipulation of Met signaling pathways, leading to increased rates of fetal transmission. The specific aims of this proposal will undertake a functional assessment of Lm InlB variant strains to examine their efficacy of vertical transmission as well as determine the mechanisms by which overexpression and/or increased stability of InlB increases vertical transmission. Aim 1 will undertake a functional assessment of cardiotropic strains for efficiency of vertical transmission to define and identify strains of Lm that pose an enhanced risk for fetal disease. Aim 2 will determine the mechanisms by which overexpression of InlB increases Lm vertical transmission. These studies will thus clarify how select Lm isolates gain access with high efficiency to placental/fetal tissues to cause devastating forms of neonatal disease and death.